Ch. I] THE VALUE OF BOTAXICAL STUDY 5 



These fli\-i>ions, and sulxlivi.-ions, of Botany are pri- 

 marily determined l)y convenience of study, especially ^\ith 

 reference to the methods and instrimients employed. Hav- 

 ing really no natural boundaries, they intergrade and inter- 

 lock very closely, on which account the progress of one 

 depends upon progress of the others. Thus, most phases 

 of Economic Botany are so dependent upon Physiology- in 

 particular, that the gi-eater Experiment Stations, main- 

 tained primarily for economic research, are well-nigh as 

 active in Physiology as are the Univer.sities. This case 

 is typical of the relation which exists everj^vhere between 

 economically useful and scientifically abstract knowledge. 

 The history of ci\ihzation has shoTMi that the greater ap- 

 plications of science to human welfare, as exemplified in 

 electricity, -wireless telegraphy, or the control of germ diseases, 

 have arisen not from researclies directed to secure useful 

 results, but incidentally as by-products of purely abstract 

 investigations made in the pur.-uit of knowledge "without 

 thought of material returns. All experience shows that 

 knowledge is a unit, of which economically useful knowledge 

 is only an ill-defined and clL^nging part ; and the surest way to 

 gain new useful knowledge is first to T\in new general knowl- 

 edge, which is possible onh" through scientific research. 

 For this reason the student 5\ho aspires to become a leader 

 in any economic pursuit must first make himself master 

 of its general or abstract knowledge. Such is likewise the 

 reason for the emphasis laid in education as a whole upon 

 subjects having no apparent economic utility. 



The facts known about plants being so multitucUnous, 

 amounting it must be to millions, and far beyond com- 

 prehension by any one person, the student may well ask 

 how it is possible to accjuire that general understanchng of 

 plants impHed in an introductory course, and textbook, of 

 Botany. It is simply thus. The diversity of plants, so 

 extensive and obvious, is really .superficial, and rests upon 

 fo'ondations of similarity, which, deep, obscure, and dis- 



